


Insolence

by ConvenientAlias



Category: Marco Polo (TV)
Genre: Angst, Begging, F/F, Kneeling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-10-31 22:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17858141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: Mei Lin is in prison following her assassination attempt. Chabi pays a visit. Nothing is resolved.





	Insolence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heartfullofelves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartfullofelves/gifts).



“You are more insolent than I had imagined possible,” Chabi says to Mei Lin.

Mei Lin has been allowed to lie down, though in a cell, and on nothing but straw. Though she is wounded, there is something too calm about her posture—she lies down in front of an Empress, looking up with half-closed eyes. You can barely tell she is listening, though Chabi knows she is. She has known from the beginning that Mei Lin is sly, Mei Lin is trouble. Only she thought Mei Lin just another woman thinking she could steal the Khan’s favor. It was true indeed that she had never imagined this level of insolence—Mei Lin actually daring to act against Chabi, to try to kill her.

She remembers the moment Mei Lin took up the spear, started running with it. How she had moved. Like dancing. Doubtless Mei Lin knows how to dance, though Chabi has never seen it, only having sampled other skills of hers. Doubtless she is accomplished in many areas.

And proved beyond doubt, her petty skills have brought her arrogance to the point of treason.

“Did Jia Sidao send you?” Chabi asks. “Or was it some traitor?”

She almost wishes it were Mei Lin’s own design. Impossible; spite at another woman being the Khan’s wife or having power over her would not be enough to make one suicidal. But she thinks about how Mei Lin ran towards her, dancing, with her hair mussed and her mask of indifference shattered into war, and she thinks of how her arrow met that breast…

And this is not about a war between Kublai and some enemy, or some other hidden plot, it is a battle intensely personal, and she feels that it has been going on since she first saw Mei Lin and part of her has known it all along. That is why, ever since, she has not been able to get Mei Lin out of her mind.

But Mei Lin looks at her impassively, and she does not answer Chabi’s questions.

Chabi’s fists clench. “On your feet.”

Mei Lin slowly sits up, and slower stands. Her wound is newly bandaged and can be barely scabbed as yet. Kublai had wanted to let her die, but Chabi said they needed to interrogate her. They still do, but this is not really an interrogation, though it was that explanation Chabi gave the guards.

Mei Lin stands clutching the bars for balance. She wets her lips, but otherwise her expression does not change.

Chabi says, “It is your queen you tried to kill.”

Mei Lin speaks at last. “Forgive me, your majesty.”

Her words are unexpected. They should not be—what else would a prisoner do but beg for mercy? But somehow they are not what Chabi wants. Chabi says, “Why should I forgive you?”

“I did it for my daughter,” Mei Lin says, “he would have killed her, please, think of your own son, you are a mother too.”

This type of garbled babbling is not what Chabi expects from Mei Lin either. And Mei Lin’s expression is too raw, the impassivity gone from it. She is ugly and broken and not the courtesan Chabi first met and first desired, and it makes Chabi’s heart clench, and she doesn’t _like_ it.

There is insolence in the presumption to ask for mercy, too. Or to compare oneself to a queen.

“On your knees, then,” she says.

Mei Lin says, “Please…”

“If you would ask for mercy, get on your knees!”

Mei Lin grips the bars tightly as she lowers herself onto her knees. Her eyes never leave Chabi’s face, and this is the third piece of insolence, to meet the eyes of a queen so openly, to try to see into Chabi’s soul.

“Forgive me, your majesty,” Mei Lin repeats. Her voice is rough, as if she has been crying, though there are no tear marks on her face that Chabi can see. Then again, a courtesan knows how to hide such things.

Were there no bars between them, Chabi thinks, she would hit her. She would slap her across the face or dig her fingers into the arrow wound in her chest. Then she would tell Mei Lin to service her, as if none of this ever happened. To remind her of her place.

Though surely her place now will be the grave, and not Chabi’s side or her bed.

Her eyes are still fastened on Chabi, pleading, begging, in ways the dignified Mei Lin should never have to beg, still not enough to pay for her crime, to make amends for what she has done. Chabi swallows.

“You will have a hearing tomorrow,” she says. “In the meantime, you may think about how badly you have erred.”

She waits to hear an answer, but all she gets is Mei Lin’s shoulders beginning to shake. She turns swiftly, and leaves before Mei Lin can cry. It is not something she wants to see.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt of "Chabi/Mei Lin, forced to kneel/bow". I can't remember what exactly happened after the assassination attempt so let's just pretend this fits in. Or it's mildly AU. Oh well.  
> Comments and kudos are much appreciated :)


End file.
